Players:

Substitutes:

Gerry Keaty

Sampo Kemila

Gerd Lemke

Scored goals:

Sergey Zhmako

Jerry Lillard

Report

Sablack was supposed to write this match report but didn't; he was also late for the game and would have started on the bench were it not for the fact that several of JTP's squad did not show up, so we lent them two players for the first half (well done Kemila and Lemke for, er, being volunteered). We started with one of last week's hattrick heroes Lillard up front, partnering Zhmako; plenty of pace between them. Their brief was simple: whoever made less impact in the first half hour would make way for Keaty's tactical nous. So off we went. A note about the pitch: this is the narrowest pitch we've ever played on. The gap between the sidleine and the edge of the 18-yard box is literally about one yard on each side. This actually seemed to play into the hands of our opposition, who are more regular 5-a-side than 11-a-side players and worked well in the narrower confines, with a game of short passes and lots of movement; in contrast, the number of Partisan balls out to the wings that went out just showed what a luxury a full-size pitch is when you don't react fast enough. A wet astro surface that the ball skipped off very fast did not help. Fortunately Guri and Ostrowski were doing a sound job at the back; JTP's main threat came from our own Kemila. A well-struck free kick from him came off the top of the bar; sure he aimed for it. I think JTP went 1-0 but I can't really remember. Anyway, after half an hour we weren't getting anywhere so Lillard came off, Keaty on. The old magic must have worked somehow; we were soon level at 1-1 with a goal from Zhmako and that's how it stayed until half time. By half time another JTP player had shown up, so we got Kemila and Lemke back; Zhmako took a turn to play for the opposition. Sheppard limped off after 10 minutes off the second half after having his foot stomped on. Back on our side, Kemila took the opportunity to add to his Partisan goal tally; a fierce 20-yard shot that took a deflection off a defender's leg. No matter, at that speed it was going in anyways. 2-1. Lillard, possibly stung at being dropped to the bench in the first half, responded positively by scoring two goals. JTP's second goal came from a well-struck free kick into the top left corner. Simunek did his best to get to it with a flying leap but only ended up damaging his shoulder on the post and missing the next game. He gets an A for effort though. Otherwise I can't remember much about the match at this late date. Think I set up one of JJ's goals, which made up for some of the appalling occasions the ball just skipped past me and into touch; Sablack, who derided me for those misses, hit one of the worst corners I've ever seen, sliced it straight behind the goal - no excuse for that when the distance from corner to goal is only about 12 yards; Ostrowski and Guri did a great job cleaning up at the back and even found time to venture forward and hit some piledrivers wide of the goal, whenever they got bored; Alexander did a sound job in the centre of the park, battling for everything and looking to create going forward. Overall not a pretty win, but a functional one.